When Major General Charles Bolden utter , you listen . Not just because he is the head of NASA , nor just because he is aformer astronautof four missions . You take heed because he is mostly responsible for giving the agency a clear goal that has instilled excitement in his 18,000 employees , the American public , and the whole world – landing humans on Mars .
If , or perhaps when , humans set down on Mars in the 2040s as planned , they will have Bolden to thank . Since being nominate as NASA Administrator by President Obamain 2009 , he has made getting humans to the Red Planet the agency ’s primary aim .
Perhaps not since the days of Apollo has NASA been so co-ordinated in its commission , so focused , and in an exclusive interview with IFLScience he explain why and how we choose this as our end . And he ’s not one to soften his words .
“ Getting humans to Mars give us the ability and the knowledge that we can well move to another place in the Solar System should Earth become uninhabitable some day , ” he says . “ While it wo n’t save us when the Sun finally collapses [ in 5 billion years ] , the journey to Mars will be the forerunner for interplanetary and , way down the road , intergalactic locomotion . ”
Big words , indeed .
Check out our video consultation with Bolden above .
As head of NASA , Bolden is essentially the agency ’s CEO . He has to juggle human spaceflight , four sub - divisions of science , aeronautics , and the development of new technologies , in improver to handle with other national space agencies across the orb and working with the President and U.S. government to secure funding for his thousands of employee and one C of areas of research . Sounds well-to-do , right ?
Choosing Mars as NASA ’s focus has not been without its critics , but Bolden is confident in his plans . He has made the development of a huge new rocket – the Space Launch System ( SLS ) – and a manned capsule called Orion the foundation of his effort to get human to Mars . Battling antiaircraft from the public andCongress alike , thing are now gathering pace .
“ Do I think we ’re at the point of no recurrence ? Not quite , ” he order , adding we are at a “ touch-and-go ” second where we ask to maintain the progress that has been made in late old age . “ To stop now and flex around , and go back and say okay , let ’s think about another place we want to go , let ’s think about focus on lunar exploration and just take a hiatus there , I call up it would be black , in person . ”
Getting humans to Mars is the primary focus of Bolden ’s administration . NASA
To grant NASA to focalize on deep space exploration , Bolden has been assay to outsource crewed missions to goal in low Earth cranial orbit , such as the International Space Station ( ISS ) , to secret company through theCommercial Crew programme . SpaceX and Boeing have both received multi - billion dollar contracts to develop such manned spacecraft , Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner severally , with launches anticipate to begin in 2017 .
Bolden is adamantine NASA will soon transmigrate from the “ Earth - reliant surround of Earth orbit ” into deep quad , with potential outposts located near the Moon , to tolerate man missions to Mars . This will leave a disruption in Earth orbit , which he says can be fill by these commercial-grade companies .
“ The void of go and ladder low - Earth orbit will be fulfill by commercial space , ” he said . “ Somebody ’s got to stay behind to mind the fort , to take vehicles as they come to scummy Earth orbit , for theatrical production as they go on to the Moon and then onto Mars , and that somebody will be commercial and entrepreneurial entities , maybe even university . ”
SpaceX ’s Crew Dragon is scheduled to begin trajectory in 2017 . SpaceX
Bolden ’s metre in office has also been notable for the juxtaposed relationship with Russia . While the American and Russian administration continue to quibble on the background , matter could not be any different in space , where NASA and Roscosmos – the Russian space agency – co - flow the ISS with suprising alacrity , and Russian Soyuz vehicle continue to carry Americans into outer space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan .
“ Our kinship with Russia right on now is tenuous , ” pronounce Bolden . “ Our relationship with Roscosmos is beautiful . The way we get together with them , the way we train with them in Houston and Moscow and Star City , we plunge out of Baikonur , that ’s the framework that you need for the future of humanity . ”
It is for this reason that Bolden sees the eventual manned Mars commission as for sure being an outside endeavour , not just with Russia but with res publica such as China and even theUnited Arab Emirates(UAE ) as well . “ Nobody thinks about the UAE as a blank - faring nation , ” he said . “ They ’re actually very aggressive at wanting to be a part of the Mars geographic expedition scheme . They have the asset and the brain power to do that . ”
NASA astronauts currently launch to the ISS on the Russian Soyuz space vehicle . NASA
The lookup for extraterrestrial life , too , has moved from a fringe scientific discipline to a major area of inquiry during Bolden ’s disposal .
While the Curiosity rover continues to find evidence for retiring habitableness on the surface of Mars , upcoming missions like theMars 2020 roverand theEuropa Flyby Missionwill make for us closer than ever to a detection of liveliness elsewhere in the Solar System , while missions like the Kepler blank scope continue to search for potentially inhabitable planets beyond .
“ We ’re oh so close [ to finding life story ] ! ” Bolden exclaims . “ A howling discovery was that offlowing pee , ice though it may be , very brackish water , on the surface of Mars . We ’re talking about microbial life , we ’re not talking about mass walk around . We ’re talking about the very fundament of sprightliness itself . ”
He continue : “ There are mass who believe we will find spirit in the ocean of Europa , a moon of Jupiter , or in the ocean of Enceladus , a with child moon of Saturn , both of which have geyser - same natural process where water goes one C of meter in the air . ”
There could be H2O , and even life , beneath the surface of Europa or Enceladus ( express ) . NASA
As there is no desexualise term for NASA Administrators , Bolden will stay in office until he opt to go to bed , or a new President of the United States after Obama decides to interchange him . Although unwilling to name his preferred candidate in the forthcoming presidential election , Bolden noted that he would be form closely with both party to ensure the path he has arrange NASA on is continued , with or without him at the helm .
“ We ’re closer than we ’ve ever been before [ to getting humans to Mars ] , ” he state , “ and to take a turning right now could embark on us in the other direction . I think that ’s our enceinte focusing … to make certain that the possible leading of the land full understands what potency they have in this great agency that we call the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . ”
There is little fortune Bolden will still be head of NASA when humans eventually put down on Mars . But he ’ll certainly be remembered as the Administrator that gave the reality the centering and infrastructure it needed to make such a giant leap potential .
